What is it about?
The article introduces a method and principles behind conducting a systematic scientometric review of a research field. The method is repeatable. Different users may apply the same method on the same dataset or on different datasets relevant to the same topic.
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Why is it important?
The goal of a systematic scientometric review is the same as the goal of a systematic review. A major difference is the former has considerably capitalized on computational techniques in constructing a visualization of the underlying subject matter and guiding the readers navigating through such a landscape with various indicators that point to the most remarkable contributions in the field so that the readers can effectively develop a good understanding of the field. The efficiency is much improved from the traditional method. Biases are reduced because the review is now based on hundreds and even thousands of individual domain experts' publications instead of the viewpoints of a few. The diversified view provides a wider context and the reader is more likely to establish a better understanding than reading a single systematic review article.
Perspectives
A challenging problem for surveying a field of research is to find the most representative collection of publications that can adequately capture the characteristics of the field in question. This is often a dilemma. If you know exactly how to achieve that, then you probably won't benefit much from the exercise because it may be hard to add anything new to your current knowledge. On the other hand, if you really need to learn more about the field, then there is a good chance that you may find hard to come up with a 'good' list of keywords to sum the field up. In this article, we introduce a flexible and extensible method to resolve the dilemma - cascading citation expansion - so that one can start with something they are familiar with and then let the automated expansion functions to work for you.
Dr. Chaomei Chen
Drexel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Visualizing a field of research: A methodology of systematic scientometric reviews, PLoS ONE, October 2019, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223994.
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